IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 5 July
05-07-2010
by Deirdre McArdle
Apple patch to fix iPhone antenna bug | Eircom to cut 2,000 additional jobs?
The Irish Times reports Dr Donal Brennan, a University College Dublin researcher, has won the European Young Researcher award at the EuroScience Open Forum under way in Turin. His project involves developing new screening technologies to diagnose breast and ovarian cancers.
The Irish Independent says that an iPhone app has been developed for hayfever sufferers that provides a daily, province-by-province forecast and warns users of pollen levels. The free app, Pollen Alert, also provides an outlook for the following day.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Skyhook Wireless has signed a deal with Samsung Electronics, which will see its location-tracking technology being used on Samsung mobile devices. The first handset to include Skyhook Wireless's technology is the Samsung Wave 8500, a smartphone that is rolling out across Asia and Europe. In this market Skyhook competes with Google, which offers a WiFi location service for free as part of its Android mobile operating system. Skyhook also must compete against device makers such as Research in Motion and Nokia, which are incorporating their own location technologies into their devices.
The same paper says that China has lashed out at the European Union over an anti-dumping investigation into a type of wireless modem. The EU's investigation involves wireless wide area networking, or WWAN, modems, and will consider whether WWAN modems from China have been dumped and whether they enjoy safeguard measures. The EU started its investigation after Belgium-based Option complained to the European Commission, according to the EU's official journal, which said that Option accounts for 100 percent of the EU's production of such modems. In a statement posted on its website China's Ministry of Commerce said the investigation is protectionist and said it interferes with normal trade.
The Financial Times reports that Apple is missing a huge opportunity in the Chinese market, according to Liu Chuanzhi, the head of Chinese PC maker Lenovo. "If Apple were to spend the same effort on the Chinese consumer as we do, we [Lenovo] would be in trouble," said Liu in an interview with the paper. Official channels for sale of Apple products are limited in China and the company has only a handful of flagship stores and authorised resellers in the country's largest cities. Apple declined to comment on Liu's statements directly, but said it is set to open a new store in Shanghai this coming Saturday and was on track to have 25 retail outlets in the country by the end of next year.
In more news of Apple, the company said the high-profile antenna problem with the iPhone 4 is not in the hardware but in the software that determines how many bars to display. According to the Financial Times, Apple said a forthcoming software update would fix the bug and display accurate signal strength. "Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don't know it because we are erroneously displaying four or five bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place," Apple said in a statement on its website.
The Sunday Tribune reports that a number of Irish celebrities and media figures have fallen victim to identity hijackers on Facebook. Up to a dozen well-known faces, including chef Rachel Allen, Irish Times editor Geraldine Kennedy, columnist Fintan O'Toole, and former Ceann Comhairle John O'Donoghue have had bogus accounts set up in their names on the social networking website. The latest spate of fake accounts follows the establishment of the satirical Madam Editor Twitter account and blog under the name of Geraldine Kennedy. The Facebook page set up in the Irish Times editor's name has already connected with 248 "friends". Sunday Independent editor Aengus Fanning and Irish Independent editor Gerry O'Regan have also fallen victim to spoof accounts. Complaints to the social networking website have not seen the accounts deleted yet.
The same paper reports that junior minister Ciaran Cuffe was asked to remove a picture of the Dail visitor's bar from his Twitter feed. Cuffe posted the picture in the wake of the successful passage of the Civil partnership Bill through the Dail on Thursday. However, one of the rules of Leinster House is that photographs can only be taken on the plinth at the front of the building. Cuffe is not expected to face action as a result of the picture.
The paper also writes that online child pornography may be going unreported because serial downloaders fear that they will be prosecuted themselves if they do so. The Internet Service Providers Association of Ireland's hotline service processed more than 2,100 reports of suspected illegal child pornography content last year, but those found to be "probably illegal" fell by almost a half to 284. This has sparked fears that those distributing the illegal images are becoming better at hiding their tracks, using "peer-to-peer" filesharing services, which are harder for the authorities to monitor. General manager of the ISPAI Paul Durrant said downloaders of music may be afraid that by reporting illegal material they come across inadvertently could show the authorities that they are using it to download music. However, the hotline reporting process is anonymous and confidential.
The paper also reports that internet search engine Google is expected to sign new leases for 80,000sq ft of additional space in Dublin that could accommodate up to 500 additional employees. The paper says this may include 40,000sq ft in East Point business park in Dublin 3 and the same amount at Grand Canal Plaza. The company refused to comment on the plans.
The Sunday Business Post reports that the joint initiative between FIFA and Sony to broadcast World Cup matches in 3D is the most ambitious experiment so far in live 3D broadcasting. A total of 25 World Cup matches, including all quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final are being shot in 3D format. Up to 500 digital cinema screens worldwide are screening the matches, as well as broadcasting on US sports channel ESPN and 10 other TV sports channels. The project is considered ambitious due to the number of matches it includes, and Sony representatives have described it as an "outstanding success".
The same paper reports that Irish digital agency Cybercom has expanded its international turnover in the past two years. The company is intending to grow further, and has recently won large global clients such as Amsterdam-based fashion brand G-Star. Cybercom has increased its staff to 40, and says it expects turnover of EUR6 million this year.
The Sunday Independent reports that Eircom is to cut up to 2,000 jobs in addition to a voluntary redundancy programme at the firm that will shed 1,200 jobs by September. The telecoms operator would not confirm or deny the reports, and would only say that discussions with unions were ongoing. Eircom previously warned that future redundancies at the company would not offer the same package offered to employees currently. Revenues at the company have fallen 7 percent in the first quarter of the year, and profits also declined. The company's large debt has caused concern, with bond markets last month saying Eircom is now the fifth-riskiest company in the world in terms of its chances of defaulting or restructuring its debt. Five weeks ago, its credit rating was downgraded by Moody's.
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